Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn has insisted that manager Roy Keane still has money to build his squad despite taking his spending for the summer to about £27 million with the capture of Craig Gordon.
Former Manchester United midfielder Keane, who turns 36 on Friday, steered the club to automatic promotion into the Premier League in his first job as a manager, and Quinn warned that they intend to stay there next season.
‘He has got more funds available although I had better not tell you how much because the prices would go up even more,’ Quinn told BBC Sport.
‘Basically, we are a buying club at the moment there is no doubt about that.’
He added: ‘I can't dress that up. Naturally, we would prefer to be selling players for massive amounts as well and this whole thing would balance out.
‘We're a bit different. We are having a go. It's not easy and we are aware of how tough everything is but we believe in our manager, our fans and that our football club deserves it.
‘Let's see where it all ends up. No hard luck stories with us. We are in there giving it a go. No cribbing and no moaning, we will just get stuck in.’
The Black Cats face Tottenham in the first top-flight game of the season on Saturday and Keane can go into the campaign confident he has the backing of fellow Irishman Quinn.
‘I wouldn't look for reasoning from Roy Keane,’ said Quinn.
‘I accept what he says because, quite frankly, in terms of his focus, desire and foresight as to what this club needs to be and where we need to go, I'm here to provide for that and not question it.’
Quinn appeared to criticise some Premier League rivals, in particular Portsmouth and West Ham, recently for driving up prices in the transfer market but he insists his remarks were taken out of context.
‘I seemed to have had a rant about it the other week,’ he said.
‘People felt I was having a go but I wasn't. I was just saying that's where we are nowadays.
‘There are lots of clubs and lots of new owners all trying to make progress. Some of us are not going to make it, some of us will fail but we are all spending as if we are going to be the ones that make it.’
